


To Be One With the Trees

by IchiBri



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fairy Keith, M/M, ferngully au, human shiro, minor thulaz as Keith's dads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-01-20 21:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12442149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IchiBri/pseuds/IchiBri
Summary: The forest spoke tales of the past, the present, the future, if only one would match the beating of their heart to the rustling of the foliage and chirping of the birds.  To remain silent in one’s words and open in their ears, all they had to do was press their palm against the rough bark and feel the flow the energy – of life – beneath their skin.  Allow their own thoughts to pass through touch, and nature would listen in turn, would reply if they only waited and sensed the words of the trees and the wind, the birds and the snakes, the flowers and the streams.Or at least, that was what Keith had been taught his entire life.





	1. Mine

The forest spoke tales of the past, the present, the future, if only one would match the beating of their heart to the rustling of the foliage and chirping of the birds.  To remain silent in one’s words and open in their ears, all they had to do was press their palm against the rough bark and feel the flow the energy – of life – beneath their skin.  Allow their own thoughts to pass through touch, and nature would listen in turn, would reply if they only waited and sensed the words of the trees and the wind, the birds and the snakes, the flowers and the streams.

Or at least, that was what Keith had been taught his entire life.  He wasn’t sure how many times he’d heard the same lecture, the same rambling of words that he could recite on the spot, and yet his teacher persisted in repeating them.

“Our world was much larger then.  The forest went on forever, stretching farther than the ends of the earth, than either you or I could ever dream of seeing.”  Kolivan outstretched his arms, long pointed nails reaching for the treetops.  Their edges frayed and torn, his dark violet wings flapped, the sunlight filtering through the leaves hitting the golden specks along the wing veins.  He turned in a full rotation, his long white braid trailing at his back and flowing with the slight billow of the spotted pelt wrapped around his hips.  “As the spirits of the forest, we protected and nurtured the harmony of all living things, coexisting in peace with predators and prey alike.

“We were close to humans then; some might even say we were friends.  But one lone human was all it took for the balance to shift.  They called upon a spirit of destruction, and from the bowels of the earth, Zarkon rose to power.  He rained down his poisons and destroyed the forest, not caring of the lives lost in his conquests.  He betrayed the humans, and they fled.”

Keith idly listened, but his mind was elsewhere.  His gaze traveled up the trees, through the entwining branches and dancing leaves to the patches of blue showing through.  It was much unlike the crystal blue of the streams he was used to, and he absently reached a hand toward it.

“Keith!”

His arm retreated to his side, and Keith’s head snapped to attention.

Crimson red – like the blood coursing through veins – marked Kolivan’s face, crossing over the bridge of his nose and spreading upward over his forehead.  Similar markings wrapped around each bicep, a stark contrast to the pale purple of his skin.  When irritated as he was, Keith swore the color deepened and dripped, but Kolivan assured him it was a trick of the eyes.  “Are you listening?”

“Of course,” Keith muttered, but his gaze betrayed him by returning to the canopy above.

Kolivan heaved a heavy sigh as he brushed a hand through his hair.  His fingers combed it back, pulling a few strands from his braid.  “I know you’d rather be anywhere but here, but please, Keith, this might be life or death one day.”

“But you already sealed Zarkon away in a tree.  And the humans are extinct, so what’s there to protect?  The forest has been at peace since before I was born.”

“And it wasn’t an easy battle.  My magic – which will one day be yours as well – won’t be enough next time.  It was barely enough as it was.”  The scar cutting through his right eye and slicing all the way down to the corner of his lips emphasized his point.  But if that wasn’t enough, the scars on his chest added to his warning, particularly the large gash crossing over his abdomen from his left shoulder.  Decades old, yet the skin still bubbled and boiled like a fresh wound, its edges an angry and inflamed pink.

Keith remembered asking Kolivan if it still hurt.  The mere child that he was, Kolivan spared Keith the truth.  But through his years of tutelage, Keith had seen Kolivan hunched over and gasping for breath too many times to believe such flowered words.

“What’s the hurry though?”  Keith’s wings fluttered, gradually propelling him backwards.

“Keith.”

“Come on, Kolivan.”  Keith smiled, his eyes pleading and the batting of his lashes far more innocent than he truly was.  Another flap of his wings pushed him back.  “Tomorrow.  I promise.”

The stern line of Kolivan’s lips remained for a long moment before he sighed.  The fierceness of his gaze melted away with his next resigned breath.  “As you said yesterday as well.  And the day before.  And the day–”

“I get it; I get it,” Keith placated even as he flew higher among the vines and their curled tendrils.  With a hand cupped to his mouth, he called down, “This time for real!”

Keith was sure he heard another heavy sigh from his teacher; but knowing Kolivan, he wouldn’t hold it against Keith.  The wise old fairy always did have a soft spot for him after all.

With a flutter of his wings, Keith raced upward.  He followed the twisting branches, trailing his fingers just over the bark.  The bumps and ridges in the wood tickled the pads of his fingers, sending a prickling thrill up his forearms and over his shoulders.  It seeped into the base of his wings, spreading like a ripple in a stream.  The ripples flared as they flowed to the very tips of his wings.

Keith glanced behind himself at the fiery trail of light in his wake.  He zigged and zagged through vines and around leaves, marveling at the sparkling glow which followed.  If he closed his eyes, he could swear the wings at his back were crackling flames and the light trail their dying embers.  But in color only were his wings ablaze, and he supposed that was in the forest’s best interest.

“Hey!  Keith!”

Keith skidded on air, his heels digging in as he fell backwards.  But he rolled with it and somersaulted to land upright on a leaf.  “Allura,” he greeted with a nod of his head.

“Where’ve you been?  We were about to leave without you.”  The rivulets of her stark white hair blew with the soft breeze, and she brushed a wavy strand behind a pointed ear.  The striking blue of her eyes – like jewels of the earth – twinkled with a glint of mischief as her lips quirked.  “Are you free or do you have to report back to Kolivan?”

The mocking of her tone had Keith’s eyebrows drawing together.  “Oh?” he drawled.  “Sounds like someone misses me.”

“Yeah.  Pidge.”  Allura laughed, the pink moon markings beneath her eyes crinkling with the lines of her skin.  She leapt off her perch on the twig, the soft petals of her dress catching the air with the flaps of her brilliant wings – spotted with a piercing eye on each and a wingspan like a butterfly.

Shaking his head, Keith quietly chuckled to himself.  His smile grew into a broad grin as he followed after Allura’s glittering trail, diving off the leaf and letting the wind carry him through the foliage of the trees.

He ducked between a pair of branches and brushed aside a leaf.  But as he quickened after Allura, a small figure riding atop a beetle crashed into him, her cackles echoing in the air.

The pair tumbled through leaves before Keith’s back hit a tree.  He hissed at the abrasive bark against his bare skin.  It left angry scratches along his shoulders as he fell to a mushroom shelf, body lightly bouncing as a flurry of spores released into the air.  Not a heartbeat later, a heaviness landed on his gut, and the breath was knocked from his lungs.

Pidge pushed up her walnut shell helmet.  Tufts of golden brown hair stuck out as she peered over the beetle’s head.  “Where you been, Keith?  Bugsy here missed you.”  As if on cue, the beetle crawled up his chest and bumped its pincers against Keith’s cheeks.

“Yeah, hi, love you too.”  Keith rubbed Bugsy’s shiny head before gently pushing the beetle and its tiny rider off him.

“What about me?”  Pidge flailed her arms, creating waves in her tanned pelt wrap.

Keith pushed himself to his feet and brushed the spores from his stomach and the vivid coprosma leaves tied around his waist.  “You too,” he lightly laughed as he reached to ruffle the walnut helmet on her head.

“Playing favorites again I see.”

“Oh, for the love of…” Keith trailed off with a sigh and a halfhearted roll of his eyes.

He turned to see the remaining two members of the beetle crew plus Allura hovering in the air.  The one who spoke, Lance, sat side-saddle with an elbow cocked atop his beetle’s head and his legs crossed at the knees.  “What about us?” he asked with an arched brow and an impish grin.

“Are we really gonna do this every time?” Keith sighed.

“I don’t know.  Are we, Hunk?”

A beaming grin so bright it rivaled the streaming sunlight through the trees had the corners of Hunk’s eyes crinkling.  He leaned forward on his beetle, hands holding the antennae.  “Yep,” he dragged out the single syllable, the word rumbling up from his chest.

“Fine,” Keith lightly huffed.  He knelt down and outstretched a hand to the little brown beetle.  He rubbed his fingers over its head and back to its thorax.  With a sharp smirk of his lips, Keith stood, his wings lightly fluttering.  “Bugsy’s my fave,” he laughed.  And then with a running start, he leapt off the mushroom shelf and flitted above the beetle crew’s heads.

“Hey!” he heard Lance’s cry of protest, but Keith didn’t stop.

With each breath of laughter carrying on the air, Keith felt the energy of the forest seeping into him.  He threw his hands out and closed his eyes, trusting the whispers of the trees to guide him.

“He’s doing it again,” Pidge called from somewhere behind him.

“I hope he runs into a tree.”

“Lance!”

“What?  He doesn’t have to show off.”

Keith chuckled, but he tuned out their chatter.  If he listened, he truly might be picking bark out of his teeth for the next week.  Instead, he focused on the direction of the soft breeze, listened for each rustle of a branch and twig.  The chirps of birds and the quiet buzz of dragonfly wings guided Keith through draping leaves and sprawling vines.

He flew up, twirling and spinning as the rays of the sun grew warmer upon his skin.  The foliage of a karri tree tickled his forearm as he fluttered past, the leaves brushing along his shoulder and trailing down his back.

“Keith!”

The squawks of a feathered friend mingled with Keith’s laughter.  The flaps of its wings echoed in Keith’s ears, and he felt the push of air as it took off from its perch.

“Keith, stop!  You’re going too high!  Keith!” Allura shouted but to no avail.

In a flurry of leaves, Keith burst through the canopy.  The sun directly above, Keith opened his eyes as the warmth spread across his chest and soaked deep into his bones.  He blinked against the brightness and raised a hand to shield his eyes.  Squinting, his vision slowly adjusted; and when it finally did, he gazed with innocent wonder and awe at the vastness of the blue sea above.  How the giant ball of heat and light floated up there among the waters of the sky, Keith would never know.

He stretched out his arm and reached his fingers up as far as he could.  But still, the tips couldn’t brush the fluff of the clouds, couldn’t run through the thickness of the sky.  How high would he have to fly to sink into the depths of the clear blue spread out before him?  He wanted to find out.

But as he lazily drifted further up, his gaze traveled along the horizon.  The trees went on for as far as the eye could see, birds dipping and diving into their branches.  But on the edge of the horizon, Keith tilted his head at the giant rock protruding into the sky.  An angry, dark cloud wafted up from the earth and mushroomed above the point of the rock.  Ominous and billowing, it hung in the sky in grim contrast to the softness of the blue and the fluffiness of the other clouds.

“Wha–” his lips parted in question, but the air was knocked from his lungs when an arm slammed into his gut and dragged him below the canopy.

They tumbled and broke through sprigs of leaves before hitting a tangle of vines.  He coughed, blinking open his eyes to the curls of Allura’s long hair.  “What the–”

“Shh,” she harshly said, cupping a hand over Keith’s mouth.

Keith stilled and held his breath.  Vision crisp and sharp, he stared through the entwining vines.  Heart thumping loudly in his chest, each beat resounded in his ears as the distinct dark lines marking hawk feathers soared past.

When the coast was clear, Allura roughly shoved him.  He stumbled on air as he skittered backwards out of the bunch of vines.

Allura stalked after him with a fierceness to her eyes and a finger jabbing at his chest.  “Are you insane?” she raised her voice in question.  “We never go above the canopy.  You should know that by now.”

But Keith’s attention was upward, his eyes staring at the peeks of blue through the trees.  “I have to tell Kolivan.”

“Tell him what?” she demanded, elbow cocked and a hand resting at her hip.

“I have to tell him,” Keith said absently to himself.  He darted past Allura and flew with a reckless abandon through the jungle forest.

“Keith!”

But he didn’t stop.  He flapped his wings and left a sparking trail of embers in his wake.  Dipping low, he soared over the glittering water of a stream.  Each pebble at its bottom was clear as day.  If he wasn’t in such a hurry, Keith would trail his fingers along the surface and relish in the spray of droplets upon his face.  But he pushed forward with a spurt of energy and zigged between the legs of a pair of cassowary birds.

He scanned the forest for his teacher.  His gaze frantic, he jerked to a stop when he saw the faint purple glow of magic.  It silhouetted Kolivan’s broad frame behind the draping of a leaf.

Keith flitted around the leaf with a call of Kolivan’s name.  “Kolivan!  Listen to this.  I just saw the most incredible thing above the canopy.”

Kolivan didn’t look up as he brushed a hand along a withered vine, its pink blossoms shriveled.  A dusting of glimmering specks fell from his fingertips and absorbed into the plant.  The pink petals perked and raised their edges, no longer drooping toward the earth.  Their pale, sickly color brightened to a vibrant magenta.

“Oh?” he hummed, the sound deep and guttural.  He floated further up, following the vine and brushing his fingers over every curled and wrinkled leaf.  So disciplined and refined in his movement, every flutter of his wings and outstretch of a hand had its purpose.  “And what would that be?”

“There’s a whole other world up there,” Keith gushed as he followed behind Kolivan like a little pup.  “The sky’s so vast; it goes on forever.  Say, how far do you think it goes?  Does it have an end?  If I fly high enough, do you think I could touch it?”

“One at a time, Keith,” Kolivan lightly chuckled.  His violet irises glanced at Keith for a short moment, and he smiled at the wonder and awe which radiated from his student.  “The sky covers the entire world,” he answered as he finished healing the vine.  He dived low to soar over the browned grass of the forest floor.

Keith chased after him and fell in line at Kolivan’s right.  “But does it end?  And what does it feel like?”

Kolivan trailed his pointed nails along the earth, clovers and wildflowers sprouting from his touch.  “Who’s to say?  It could end just beyond our sight, or it could go on for longer than you or I could ever travel in a lifetime.”

“I want to find out,” Keith quietly said.

“Maybe you will someday.  Was there anything else?”

“Oh, yeah!  There was a gigantic rock.”  Keith outstretched his arms as far as he could to emphasize his point.  “A… a…”

“A mountain,” Kolivan supplied.  “That would be Mount Weblum.”

“And next to it,” Keith went on, his brow drawing together as he remembered, “there was this really dark cloud.  Blacker than night, and it rose up from the earth.”

“Smoke, most likely.”

“Smoke?  What’s that?”

“There are many things in this world that you do not know, Keith,” Kolivan said.  He plucked a single seed from a flower.  It glowed purple as his magic flowed through it, levitating it between his hands.  “Everything in our world is connected by the delicate web of life.”  With a few distinct flaps of his tattered wings, Kolivan flew up along the remains of a hollowed and rotting stump.  “And that is balanced between the forces of destruction and the magic of creation.”

Kolivan reached the top of the stump and hovered just above its surface.  The wood dark and dead, he could barely see the rings which recounted the tree’s life.  He set the seed at the stump’s center and turned a calm gaze to Keith.  “Help it grow.”

Keith swallowed and nodded.  He moved closer to Kolivan’s side and cupped his hands around the tiny seed.  Squeezing his eyes shut, he focused his energy on his palms.  Be one with the trees, he reminded himself; but at this moment, he couldn’t hear their words.

His hands pulled back as his shoulders slumped.  Blinking his eyes open, he quietly asked, “Why can’t I do it, Kolivan?”

“Everyone can call upon the magic of the forest.  You just have to find it within yourself.”  Kolivan reached out a hand and let the specks of purple fall from his palm.  They rained down upon the seed until a sprout of green broke through its shell.  The sprout grew and curled, snaking its way through the crevices of the stump until its roots dug deep into the earth.

“I want to, Kolivan.  I really do.”  Keith tenderly brushed a finger along the sprout, its surface smooth beneath his touch.

Kolivan placed his hand upon Keith’s shoulder.  With a reassuring squeeze, he said, “I know.  And one day, you will.”

Kolivan’s hand fell away as he turned to continue his work.  But he stopped at Keith’s call of his name.

Sheepishly, Keith met Kolivan’s eyes.  “About that smoke,” he hesitantly began.  “You don’t think it could be… Zarkon.  Do you?”

“No,” Kolivan flatly said, but the crimson marks on his face darkened.  “Zarkon is sealed away, and there is no force in nature that can free him.”

“But then what caused the smoke?”

“I think that’s enough for today.”  With a firm touch, Kolivan steered Keith back the way he came.

“But, Kolivan,” Keith whined.

Sternly, Kolivan said, “Off you go now.  And no more of this Zarkon talk.”

Bottom lip jutted in a pout, Keith glowered at his teacher.  But with a sigh, he gave in and scurried away.  After all, he could always pester Kolivan about it tomorrow.

With his student retreating into the trees, Kolivan darted further to the outskirts of their homeland.  Once far enough out to avoid prying eyes and eavesdropping ears, Kolivan stared in the direction he knew Mount Weblum to be.

Swiping out his arms, the trees bent to his will.  They bowed before him and opened a clear line of sight to the mountain.  The billowing smoke hung clearly in the sky, and Kolivan’s eyes – the irises’ color morphing to a sharp, glinting gold – narrowed at its sight.

“Zarkon,” he growled.

 

“So,” Allura drawled as she lay in a leaf hammock basking in a single ray of sunshine, “what’d the koala have to say?”

Keith’s bare toes touched down upon the soft blades of plucked grass which bedded Allura’s hidden roost in the tree.  “He’s not a koala,” he said.  Blocking the sunshine, he leaned against the rounded entrance.  “And he said I should stop hanging around a frivolous flower picker like you.”

Allura darted to sit up, her normally serene features twisting into that of anger and disgust.  “I’m not a–”

Her words fell short as something crashed into the tree.  The collision shook the trunk and sent Allura toppling from the hammock.  Keith staggered on his feet, and the both of them jumped from the roost to investigate the cause.

Another thud rang out.  “Red light.”  And another.  “Oh, red light again.”

Allura tipped her head to the side as she watched the disoriented fruit bat nosedive straight into yet another tree.  “What the– Keith!  What are you doing?”

Keith flitted after the spiraling bat as it fell into a hollowed tree.  He landed on one of the tree’s many holes and leaned over the edge.  “Hello?” he called.  He gazed down and searched for the bright orange fur of the bat.

High-pitched screeching startled Keith over the ledge.  His wings fluttered to keep him airborne as his head jerked up.

“Mayday!  Mayday!  Coming in hot!” the bat cried.  Its wings flapped erratically, one of them hitting Keith as the bat fell past him.  But the contact had the bat perking up, spreading out its wings to stop its sudden descent.  Eyes glassy, Keith appeared as a blurry red glow to the creature.

The bat snapped at him, sharp teeth dripping with saliva.  Keith held the bat back with a forearm as he frantically chanted, “Bless your heart with magic light.  I give the gift of fairy sight.”

Sparks of embers shot from his fingertips.  They collided with the bat and fizzled out upon the orange fuzz of its fur.  Blinking, the bat’s pale purple eyes cleared as it shook its snout.

The bat backed away and perched upon an opposite hole.  Tilting its head, it rubbed its thumbs together as it cooed, “Why, aren’t you a pretty little bug?”

But Keith was staring at his hands.  “I did it,” he quietly breathed.  Then again, louder he exclaimed, “I did it!”

“Oh, dear.”  Keith looked up at the bat.  Slowly, it tipped backwards as it very calmly stated, “Gravity works.”

Keith heard the thump of the bat hitting the ground before he could catch its wing.  He flew down along the tree’s trunk and landed upon a jutting root.  Hesitantly, he reached an arm around the bat’s limp body and pulled it close to his chest.  “Are you okay?” he quietly asked as he tipped the bat’s head toward him.

A spasm jolted through the bat as the wires protruding from an electrode in its head touched.  Its eyes jerked open, and it jumped from Keith’s hold.  “Primary testing laboratory,” it chattered.  “Pass the probe.  Graduate students gather round.  Ahhh!”  Another shock of the electrode coursed through its body.

Keith took a slow, deliberate step toward it.  “It’s okay.  We won’t hurt you,” he said.

Allura landed a few paces behind Keith as the commotion started to draw a crowd of fairies.  Keith leaned back to whisper to her, “He’s still a little confused.”

“Clearly,” she said with an amused quirk of her lips.  “But what is he?”

Wringing his thumbs together, the bat stepped forward.  His eyes darted between all the fairies as he hunched inward on himself.  “Hello,” he nodded.  “I’m a nocturnal flying mammal, a part of the family of pteropodidae.  In case you can’t tell, I’m a bat.  Yes, I am, and they used to call me Coran.  Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe.”  Extending a thumb to Keith, Coran said, “Pleased to meet you,” before kissing the back of Keith’s hand.

Coran backed away as more fairies gathered around.  A pair in particular flanked Keith, both towering over him.  The taller of the two stood at Keith’s left, and his hard stare pierced the bat.  “Where are you from?” he questioned.

“Oh, me?  I just blew in from a biology lab.”  He scurried past the fairies and perched on the highest arch of the protruding tree root.  “Finally flapping free, let me tell you a story all about me,” he warbled.

“Uh… is he going to sing?  Is that what he’s doing?”

“Oh, hush, Ulaz.  Let him do his thing,” the fairy to Keith’s right said.  He reached over Keith – his forearm brushing Keith’s silky hair – to ruffle the strip of white fuzz on his partner’s head.

Ulaz swatted at the hand, but the pointed purple nails lightly scratched along the thick white markings on his head before falling away.  “Thace,” he said, voice somehow stern and soft at the same time.  “We don’t have time for a ridiculous ditty.”

Coran lunged off the root.  Spreading his wings wide, he gave two powerful flaps as he lowered himself to hover before Ulaz.  An eye twitching, he jerked forward into Ulaz’s personal space and hissed, “It’s called rapping, you uncultured bumbleberry.”

“Why you–” Ulaz reached to wring the bat’s neck, but Keith caught his forearm.

With a tittering laugh, Keith patted the dusty purple arm.  “Leave him be, Father.  He doesn’t mean any harm.”

Ulaz stared down at Keith, but he couldn’t deny those big, twinkling eyes.  With a low groan, he resigned himself and his pointed ears to the atrocity of the bat’s voice.

Coran hopped back to the root.  He flapped his wings and swayed to a beat only he could hear.  With every jolt of an electrode, he shivered and spasmed, but it didn’t stop him from belting out lyrics and twirling with any fairy which dared to get too close.

“They used and abused me.  Battered and bruised me.  Red wires, green wires.  Stuck ‘em right through me.  So hear my batty word, and exercise a little prudence, when dealing with… humans.”  Coran whispered the last word.

The forest fell eerily silent before a chorus of gasps echoed around them.

“Humans?”  Keith fluttered forward in his excitement.

Coran jolted with fright.  “Where?” he screeched as he ducked low to the ground, shielding himself with his wings.

Keith knelt down beside Coran.  “No, no,” he gently said.  And with equally gentle hands, he slipped his fingers between the wings – the membrane warm to his touch – to coax them open.  “There are no humans.”

“They’re long gone,” Ulaz stated, arms crossed firmly over his chest.

“Vanished,” another fairy said.

A third chimed in, “Extinct.”

“They’re merely an old folk legend,” Allura said.  She held three big ripe berries in her arms and dropped them before Coran.  “Only the koala believes in them.”

Coran’s snout wrinkled as it sniffed the air.  He bounced back up to gobble down a juicy berry in one quick gulp.  He hiccupped before bowing to Allura.  “It’s been lovely, but I must skedaddle.  Sayonara, Princess,” he said with a wave of his wing.

Keith flitted back to Ulaz and Thace.  He latched onto Thace’s arm as his wings fluttered with elation – raising him higher and higher, and if not for his grip on Thace, he might’ve drifted above the canopy.  “Oh, Papa, is it possible?  Do humans really exist?”

Thace rubbed the scruff of hair at his chin.  Golden eyes flicked upward as he pursed his lips.  “Well,” he drew out the word as the gears of his mind worked to find an answer.

“Don’t you think you’re a little old to believe in human tales?”

Keith’s gaze downturned at Ulaz’s words, and Thace sent his partner a sharp frown.

“Human tails?” Coran piped up.  He skittered backwards to nab another berry.  With its juice dripping from his mouth, he said, “Humans don’t have tails.  They have big bottoms, and they wear ugly shorts while walking around like this.”  Wings folded, he buried his thumbs in the fur at his sides and waddled in a circle.

Like a bee buzzing from flower to flower, Keith flew to Coran.  He hovered above the ground, the beat of his wings matching the mirth in his eyes.  “Did you really see humans?  Were they at Mount Weblum?”

“Masses of homosapiens, they were,” Coran nodded.

Sucking in a breathy gasp, Keith’s grin spread across his face.  He spun and darted through a sprig of leaves, a single leaf breaking at the stem and falling to the earth.

“Keith!  Wait just a–”

“Let him go,” Thace hushed Ulaz.  Then he called after Keith, “Be home in time for supper!”

“I will!” Keith promised as he waved back at them.  Then with a spurt of energy, he bolted through vines and around tree trunks in a flurry of glowing embers and trailing light.

“Ah, wait up, little bug!  I can’t fly that fast.”  Coran huffed as he flapped his wings.  When Keith eased back to let Coran catch up, Coran asked, “Where you going?”

“Mount Weblum,” Keith innocently said.

Coran blinked, mouth hanging open as he stared at Keith.  Not paying attention, he flew straight into a tree.  He crumpled as he fell, but with a shake of his head, Coran righted himself and rushed after Keith.  “For a second, I thought you said you’re going to Mount Weblum.”

Keith twisted midair to gaze up at Coran, lazily drifting with each beat of his wings.  “I did.”

“But there are humans on Mount Weblum!”

“Exactly.”

Coran dashed forward, flying over Keith and dropping in front of him.  Keith somersaulted to avoid a collision, but Coran flapped after him.  “Wait a gosh darn minute!” Coran said.

But Keith didn’t wait.  He soared beneath a large shade leaf and dipped low over a babbling creak.  His crimson glow reflected in the shining water; and this time, Keith trailed his fingers along the surface and marveled at the glimmering spray of droplets.

“Are you listening?  Mount Weblum isn’t a place for a pretty little bug like you.  They’ll eat you alive!”  Coran frantically flew after Keith, shaking his snout at the cold splash of water.  He swerved to the right and flew beside the fiery fairy.  “Look at these,” he pointed a thumb at the wires and electrode.  “You think nature did this?  Or maybe I put it in to get better reception?  No, think again!  Humans–” his whole body shivered “–did this.  Despicable things, they are.”

When Keith still wouldn’t stop, Coran chattered on, “It’s a nice place you’ve got here.  Why don’t we stay and flutter our wings a bit?  We can…”

Keith slowed at an opening in the trees.  He descended behind the thorns of a bush and stared out upon a sea of dull yellow grass and stout shrubs.  Each blade swayed with the whipping of the hollowing wind, and it blew the locks of dark hair over his forehead.

Oddly quiet, Keith glanced behind himself.  “Coran?” he asked before spotting the bat perched on a tree branch, wings wrapped tightly around himself.  Keith flew up to him.  “Coran, aren’t you coming?”

“I, uh… Oh!”  He grabbed at the fuzz of his chest as he tipped backwards.  Toes gripping the branch, he swung beneath it and hung upside down.  “I don’t think my old heart can make it.”

Keith floated with Coran, his feet pointed to the sky and his hair draping toward the earth.  “Well, why don’t you wait for me here then?”

“That is a lovely idea.  And why don’t you wait with me?  We can have a tea party and exchange jungle gossip.”

Keith reached out and stroked the soft fur of Coran’s snout.  “It’ll be okay. I’ll be right back.”

In one smooth and fluid movement, Keith kicked his feet and propelled backwards.  With a twist of his body, he righted himself.

“Why do I not believe you?” he heard Coran mutter.

But with a gulp, Keith pushed on.  He hesitated for only a moment at the edge of the trees, staring over the prairie at the ominous cloud of smoke.  Larger and more encompassing, the dark cloud raised goosebumps to Keith’s flesh.  His jaw clenched as he gritted his teeth against the wind.  Slowly, he ventured out of the safety of the trees.

There was a constant whistle to the air – low and hissing, like a warning before a snake’s strike.  Keith kept his gaze forward, trained on the mountain and its blanket of smoke, even as each twitch of a grass blade or shrub’s branch tempted his eyes.  He blinked against the wind, raising an arm to shield his face from its sting.

From the grasses, a murder of crows rose.  Keith startled at their harsh caws as the sounds mingled with the wind’s howl.  He darted low as the flock rushed toward him, but dark wings clipped him in his escape.

He spiraled through the air.  The wind caught his small body and whipped him through a sharp shrub bush, the tip of a branch scratching his ribs.  He sucked in quick gasps as he flapped his wings for traction.  But the breath was knocked from his lungs when the wind threw him against a tree.

Hacking and coughing, Keith bowed his head as he held desperately to the rough bark.  His lungs ached with each heave.  But with a raspy inhale, he blinked open his eyes.

Bright red clouded his vision.  It dripped down the splayed bark – two thick lines crossing over each other.  A sharp, caustic scent stung Keith’s nostrils, and he scurried back.  Turning his hands over, he stared down at the red stain upon them, saw the streak of color across his pale chest.  It stuck to him like the honey of bees – heavy and slick – but it lacked the sweetness.  Instead, it tingled and burned his skin.

His eyes flicked between the trees.  The same red dye marked each of them.  Even when he flew further into the forest’s depths, there wasn’t a single tree without it.

He hovered before the nearest.  Letting his eyelids fall shut, he gently placed his palms flat against the bark.

He listened for a whisper, but the tree cried out to him.  Jolts of pain flowed into Keith’s hands and coursed up his forearms, but he didn’t retract his touch.  He squeezed his eyes against the discomfort and heard the pleas of the forest.

A cry for help, for the blades to stop.  Tears for their siblings, the very essence of the forest.  A plea for their survival.

Keith bowed his head and touched his brow to the bark.  Without uttering a word, he offered his condolences.  He left the tree with a promise to help, but he wasn’t sure how.  He didn’t even understand what it meant by blades or how he could stop them.

But with a firm line of his lips and determination in his eyes, he set out to find the cause.  Vision crisp and hearing piqued, he scanned the smoke-laden forest.  Branches low and drooping, leaves hung toward the ground.  The underbrush was trampled and noxious.  A dark liquid pooled and oozed upon the dirt, and its fumes choked Keith’s lungs.

A shrill echo drew Keith’s attention.  His head swiveled as the staticky call rang once more.  It grated his ears, but Keith flittered toward it.  Again, it sounded, but Keith could only make out the last syllable.

“–ro!”

Digging his heels into thin air, Keith skidded as his wings spread to slow him down.  He latched onto a tattered piece of bark and scrambled to hide behind it.

A giant of a creature – so big Keith could perch on his shoulder like a fly – walked past Keith’s hiding spot.  Each step thundered through the trees like a beast, only he wasn’t a beast.  Standing tall on two legs, the man resembled Keith.  The clothes he wore were a little… peculiar, Keith supposed.  He had never seen a plant or animal hide that wrapped the legs quite as closely, but then again, Keith knew little of the tailoring trade.

Flitting between bark and leaves, Keith followed the human.  A tune like none he’s ever heard – heavier, deeper like a storm – played around the man.  The closer Keith flew, the louder the music blared, each beat reverberating in his chest.

Another shrill call sounded over the music.  “Shiro!”

The human paused, and as he turned a questioning glance over his shoulder, a glint caught Keith’s eyes.  The human may have had two legs, but his right arm was not that of flesh and blood.  It shined in any ray of light it caught even despite the scuffs and nicks to its surface.  Rock, maybe?  Or some sort of polished gem?  Keith didn’t know.

“Yeah, yeah.  I’m working on it,” the human answered.  With a shake of a can, he pointed it at a tree trunk and sprayed the mark of red upon its bark.

Brow furrowing, Keith flew after the man.  As he passed the freshly marked tree, he skimmed a finger over the crossing of the lines.  The color came off wet and sticky, dripping down his finger to his palm.

The man’s steps faltered, and Keith followed his gaze to a lone tree.  As if it wasn’t part of the forest, it stood in a small and hazy mead.  Thick and bulging, the tree’s trunk forked into grotesque branches.  The offshoots hung over the human like awaiting claws, as if it would snatch any prey which ventured into its grasp.

With a shrug, the human marked the tree.  He didn’t spare a second glance, and thus didn’t see the paint bubble and boil, didn’t notice an odd sweat ooze from the marking.

But what the man did see was a flickering red glow dart into a bush.  A thick eyebrow arched, and the human crept closer.  His brow drew together as he brushed the leaves aside.

Keith darted from the bush.  He dashed through the foliage of an overhanging branch and over a muddy crick.  The human’s thundering footsteps followed.  But when a thud and a splash sounded distantly behind him, Keith slowed to a stop.

Turning, he hovered and searched for the man.  But he didn’t see the off-white of the man’s top or the glint of his arm.  With a huff, Keith sighed his relief.

But the relief was short-lived.  A piercing buzz stung Keith’s ears.  Its vibrating drone screamed and echoed, and sparks flew as a tree teetered and shook.

With wide eyes and parted lips, Keith could only stare at the destruction of the forest.  Even with the harsh humming of the cutter, Keith heard the agony of the trees.  But this… thing – whatever it was – wasn’t an enemy Keith could face on his own.

Darkness enclosed Keith.  The heat of flesh squeezed him from all sides.  Struggling, he kicked and pounded against the fingers which held him captive.  When they wouldn’t free him, Keith bared his teeth and dug the blunt ends into skin.

“Son of a–”

The hand loosened.  Keith wiggled himself through a gap in the fingers.  His wings fluttered to dart away, but the tipping of a tree made him pause.

“Watch out!”  Keith frantically waved his arms at the man.  But the human blankly stared, his stormy eyes fascinated by the pretty glowing bug.  “Behind you!”

Still the man couldn’t hear.  Just behind his shoulder, the tree creaked and croaked as the last bit of wood snapped.

Keith flitted higher.  “Bless your eyes with magic light.  I give the gift of fairy size.  Ugh, sight!” Keith shouted.

Glowing embers circled around the human.  They raised him into the air as the light raced around him, over and over in tighter laps until he was the same size as Keith.  Falling through the air, the man’s hard hat slipped off and the glinting rod of his arm fell away.

The force of the tree toppling to the ground trapped Keith and the human in a gust of air.  With hasty flaps of his wings, Keith scurried through the tangle of brush and branches.  Head swiveling like an owl, his eyes desperately searched for the human.

An unnatural roar – unlike any monstrous beast Keith knew to exist – sent a tremble down his spine.  His head whipped in its direction, and his wings momentarily ceased their flutters.  He dropped an inch in the air before catching himself, but his limbs quivered at the enormous monster and its savage pincers.  It picked up a full-grown tree in one fell swoop and fed it into its gaping mouth of sharp, rotating teeth.

Keith gasped as the claw reached for another tree.  Stuck to a spider’s web, the human lay still and unconscious upon it.  Keith’s eyes darted between the gluttonous beast’s throat and its human prey.  With a shaky breath to steel his courage, Keith raced forward into the monster’s clutches.

He zipped below a pincer and flew straight for the monster’s jaw.  Diving low, he grabbed the human’s top and yanked with all his might.  “Come on,” he gritted between clenched teeth, but the intricate strings of the web refused to let go.

With a groan, Keith hefted and pulled.  His hands left red smears of dye upon the human’s shirt with every yank.  He feared the monster could smell it, like a beast to the scent of blood, for its chomping teeth drew closer and closer.

Keith felt its rancid, hot breath sear his wings.  The bite of its teeth resounded at his back, yet Keith held tight to the human.  He found the man first, and he wasn’t about to let some monster gobble him up as an afternoon snack.  Even if it meant Keith becoming dessert, he’d stake his life on this human.

Keith anchored himself against a knot in the trunk.  He dug his bare heels against the rough bark and heaved.  A few strands of the web snapped, and with his next hard jerk, the human broke free.

Keith tumbled backwards as he caught the man against his chest.  The dark tuft of the human’s bangs tickled Keith’s shoulder, but he had no time to laugh as their momentum pushed them into the monster’s awaiting mouth.

“Coran, Coran the gorgeous bat, here to save the day!” the bat sang as he swooped down from the canopy and plucked Keith by the shoulders.

Arms wrapped around the human’s chest, Keith’s hands clasped together in a death grip.  He held the human close even as Coran’s claws dug painfully into his shoulder blades.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” Coran chattered as he flew across the prairie and back into the safety of Keith’s homeland.  “No one listens to Coran, but did I tell you?  The pretty little bug almost became a pretty dead bug.”

Coran tipped his head low to look at Keith.  “Hmm,” he hummed, eyes roving over the unconscious body Keith clutched close.  “Tank top?  Pants?  Shoes?  Little bug, when’d you go shopping?”

“I found him,” Keith brightly beamed, his smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.  “So he’s my human now, right?”

“Human!” Coran screeched.  The bat swerved and veered.

Keith’s eyes widened as he flailed his legs.  “Tree!” he warned.

But before Coran could look up, they crashed into the trunk.  Coran dropped Keith, and Keith fell through the air.  His grip on the human slipped, but he caught the human by a forearm and flapped his wings to hold their added weight.  Slowly, Keith lowered the man onto a tree limb.

Then he called, “Coran?  Coran, you okay?”

A low moan answered him, and Keith followed the sound to the tree they collided with.  Gently, he lifted Coran’s head from between the fork of two branches.  “Are you okay?” he asked again.

Coran shook his head as his eyes lazily blinked open.  “I must be off my meds,” he said.  “I thought I saw a human.”

“You did,” Keith innocently answered.  “See?”  Keith fluttered to the side and pointed down at the tree limb.

Coran’s eyes bulged as he scrambled backwards.  “Ahh!  Human!”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Keith said.  He flew through the space and gently took Coran’s thumb in his hand.  “He’s harmless.”  He led a reluctant Coran down to the limb where the human lay.

Staring upon the man, Coran hopped around him and hesitantly poked a toe at the man’s shoe.  When the human didn’t so much as twitch, Coran puffed up taller and leaned over him.  Head tilted, he said, “This one looks a little… broken, don’t you think?”

Keith walked over to kneel beside the human.  Lips pursed, he supposed Coran was right.  A deep scar cut across the bridge of the man’s nose.  Another peeked out from beneath his shirt to slice through a collarbone.  Cuts and slashes marred the man’s shoulders and spread out over his left arm.  And his right arm, well, from just above the elbow down, it was gone.

“That’s okay.  He’s still mine,” Keith said.

He reached across the man’s torso and pulled a shiny tool from the front pant pocket.  Holding it in his hands, his fingers fiddled with the smooth edge until it unfolded.  The handle wooden, it changed to a glinted stone – similar to the arm the man lost in the forest – and narrowed to a sharp point.

“What are you going to do with him?” Coran asked.

Keith hummed as he ran a finger along the sharp edge.  The tool reminded him of a hunter’s arrowhead, but none were as sharp as this.  “Take him to Kolivan, I guess.  And then I can take him home and show Papa and Father.  Oh, and Allura!  She’ll never believe it.”

The man’s foot moved, his leg slowly drawing back as a quiet groan rumbled in his chest.  Keith crawled forward to lean over him, watching the flutter of long lashes.  When they blinked open, Keith stared into groggy eyes, but their color was clear and vivid – like silver pebbles at the creak bottom under the water’s glimmering shine.


	2. Fire

At the first twitch of the human’s shoe, Coran darted for a higher branch.  He shielded himself with the membrane of his wings, his bright violet eyes the only thing visible between them.

Keith leaned forward on a palm, his wings lightly fluttering with a glimmering glow.  In his other hand, he held on to the human’s bladed tool, his grip tightening with each beat of excitement in his chest.  As the man’s long lashes quivered – dazed and unsteady – the beat of Keith’s wings quickened.  His legs lifted from the tree branch as he hovered horizontally over the human.

A low groan rumbled in the man’s chest.  So guttural and beast-like, it reminded Keith of an angry canine.  Tipping his head, Keith lowered until his ear was a hairsbreadth from the man’s shirt.  Each rise and fall of his chest had beats of his heart resounding in Keith’s ear.

Gaze flicking upward, Keith met the silvery irises of the human.  Cloudy and muddled with the haze of returning consciousness, his eyes reminded Keith of the stones at the bottom of the creek bed – not quite crystal clear but they still shimmered beautifully under the weight of the water.

The human’s long lashes slightly fluttered like the wings of a butterfly.  When the whites of his eyes cleared and his irises sharpened, he stared up at Keith.  His gaze flicked over Keith’s face – the softness of his cheeks, the wisps of bangs dangling over sparkling eyes – but his brow drew together at the glint of metal in Keith’s hand.

Like a serpent striking a mouse, the human lunged forward.  His shoulder slammed into Keith’s chest and knocked Keith backwards.  The beat of Keith’s wings stuttered as he fell on his backside upon the tree branch.  His skull hit the bark with a low thump.

The human’s fingers curled painfully around Keith’s wrist.  The tips dug into his skin even as the human’s balance staggered above him.

Keith’s grip upon the blade loosened.  But before his fingers fell open completely, the human choked on a sharp gasp as his weight was lifted from Keith.

“What’d I tell you?”  Coran flapped above Keith.  “Despicable beasts they are.”  Coran tipped his head low to hiss at the struggling human clutched in his toe claws.

“Let me go!” the man huffed.  He kicked his legs and twisted his torso, but Coran’s claws dug further into his skin.

“Coran, let him go.”  Keith hopped to his feet like a rabbit.  With a flutter of his wings, he glided over the tree limb.  “He’s just scared.”

“I am not!  Let me go!”

“You heard him,” Coran said as he shook the human.  “Not scared.  Just rabid.  Foaming at the mouth.”

Keith’s head tilted as he stared at the human’s lips.  Parted in his echoing objections, they formed around each sharp word with an animated accuracy.  Slowly, gently, Keith reached out his hand to touch the human’s cheek.

The man’s lips froze mid-syllable.  Those stone-silver eyes widened as they downturned to the soft touch upon his skin.

Coran jerked backwards and tugged the human with him.  “He’s contagious, little bug.  Don’t touch.”

“I am n–”

The human fell silent as Keith said, “He’s not.  There’s no foam.”  Once more, Keith reached for the human.  His fingers closed around the man’s forearm, and he gently tugged.  “Put him down, Coran.  Please.”

Coran’s snout wrinkled with something akin to disgust.  With a long, drawn-out groan, he unclenched his toes and let the human fall.

The man’s shoes slipped on a knot in the bark, and he stumbled backwards until his back pressed against the trunk.  Slowly, he sank lower to sit upon the branch.

Keith fluttered after him.  “Are you okay?” he asked as he knelt before the human.

The man looked up from his hand in his lap.  His eyes narrowed at the glinting blade still in Keith’s grasp.  “I’m going to take that back,” he slowly said, reaching for the handle.  Carefully, he pried the pocket knife from Keith’s hand.  With a sigh, the man’s tension deflated from his shoulders as he closed the knife against his thigh.

Through long lashes, the human’s gaze trailed up Keith’s chest.  An eyebrow arched sharply at the painted red streaks smearing the skin.  But what had his eyes comically bulging were the blazing wings absently waving at Keith’s back.  Molten lava flowed along the veins of the wings, each flap sending sparks spewing into the air.  Like fire in the wind, the reds and oranges rippled with each flutter.

“I’m dead.”  The man’s head tipped back as his arm fell limp beside him.  Eyelids closed over his eyes as if waiting for the light of the afterlife to illuminate the newfound darkness.

“I can make that happen,” Coran muttered, but his jaw snapped shut at Keith’s stern gaze.

Softly, Keith spoke, “You’re not dead.  Coran and I saved you from that monster.”

The human peeked an eye open.  “Monster?”

“Yeah, the one eating the trees.  It tried to eat you, too.”  Keith’s lips downturned, his bottom one jutting out as he absently mused, “I wonder what that thing was.”

The human looked at Keith with a brow furrowed in deep thought before his eyes widened with the recollection of something.  “Okay, this has been lovely–” the man pushed himself to his feet “–but I’m outta this fever dream.  Sayonara.”  With a single wave of his hand, the human turned away from Keith and stepped right off the branch.

Keith scuttled after the human.  He peered over the edge of the branch, head tilted and mouth pursed at the flailing of the human’s limbs and the deep screams passing the man’s lips.  “Did he forget how to fly?”

“Little bug,” Coran hopped to his side and craned his head to watch the human smack into a sprig of leaves, “humans can’t fly.”

“What?”  Eyes widening, Keith’s head swiveled like an owl to Coran.  The bat nodded, snout animatedly bouncing up and down in the air.

Without a second thought, Keith dove off the branch.  His wings beat erratically with the fervor of fire in his blood.  He plowed through leaves and zipped around entwining branches.  He followed the guttural bellows of the human’s descent until he spotted the human’s bright shirt.  Arm reaching out – stretching farther than Keith thought it could – Keith caught the man’s ankle.

His wings spread wide.  Catching the air, Keith held tight to the human as their fall slowed to a controlled hover.  Carefully, Keith flew to a mushroom shelf and lowered the human upon it.

On his hands and knees, Keith crawled to the human’s side.  “Are you okay?” he asked again, fingers reaching to feather along a reddened scratch on the man’s cheek.

But like ice, the man’s glare stung Keith’s hand.  Keith’s fingers retracted and curled.

“What did you do to me?” the human demanded.  “I’m three inches tall!”

“I…”  Keith nibbled on his bottom lip as his eyes averted to the bumps and lumps in the mushroom.  “…shrank you,” he quietly said.  Then he piped up, louder and with remorse in his eyes, “I didn’t mean to.  The spell wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“Wasn’t supposed–”  The human lunged forward in his surge of anger, but with a heaved inhale and a pinch to the bridge of his nose, he settled for seething through his teeth.  “Turn me back.”

“Uh… well, you see…”  Keith scratched at his cheek, his eyes flicking between the mushroom and the man’s steel gaze.

“You can’t, can you?”

Keith’s head snapped up as he rushed to defend himself.  “I–” but his words fell short.  His shoulders slumped as he sat back on his haunches.  “I can’t.  But Kolivan can.”  His eyes slowly trailed up the mushroom, over the human’s amputated arm, and along the exposed collarbone.  “If you want to, that is.”

“Of course, I want to,” the human huffed.  With a heavyset sigh, he hefted himself to his feet and made a show of brushing spores and dust from his clothes.  “Take me to this… Kolivan thing.”

“…okay,” Keith quietly said.  Fingers clenching and unclenching, he slowly straightened before swaying on his feet.  “You might change your mind, though, if you get to see how beautiful the forest is.  You might never want to leave.”

“Uh-huh.  Now about this Kolivan thing…” the human trailed off as his eyes peered skeptically at the forest surrounding him.

“Oh!”  Keith perked up, his gaze brightening.  “Kolivan’s amazing.  He’s my teacher, and he can do just about anything.  He’s gonna be so surprised when he sees you,” Keith cheerfully spoke as he strode off the mushroom shelf.  His wings fluttered to keep him afloat.  “You’ll l–”

“Um, hello!” the human called.

Keith spun around quickly.  Standing at the edge of the shelf, the human combed a hand through his black fringe before his chest heaved with a longsuffering sigh.  Keith’s lips formed around a silent gasp as he remembered humans couldn’t fly.  “Sorry, sorry.  And it’s Keith, by the way,” he said as he darted back to the human.

“Shiro,” the human said, and despite his vexation, he offered his hand out to Keith in greeting.

Instinctively, Keith reached to shake with his right hand, but he retracted it and offered his left.  “Nice to meet you, Shiro.”  He smiled, dazzling and bright and with more enthusiasm than Shiro’s short quirk of lips reciprocated.  “Coran can carry you.”

A choked cough gave away the bat’s eavesdropping perch on a higher branch.  “Over my dead body.”  With a swoosh of his wing, Coran dove from the tree.  Flying low, his toes scratched at the short hairs of the human’s head before he arched back into the treetops.  “You’re on your own, little bug.”

“Coran!” Keith called after him, but the bat disappeared into the foliage.  He rubbed at the back of his neck as he turned to Shiro.  “I guess we’re on foot then.”

Shiro shrugged.  “Nothing new to me,” he said as he stared over the edge of the mushroom.  His eyes trailed down the tree trunk, following the path of mushrooms and draping vines, before looking to his right arm.  Without his prosthetic, this was going to be a bigger pain in the neck than it already was.

 

“Hey, Throk?”  The spindly man arched a brow as he flipped through camera footage.

His partner sighed, not even looking up from the word puzzle balanced on a crossed knee.  “What is it, Haxus?”

“You see Shiro anywhere?”

Again, Throk didn’t bat an eyelash.  “No.  Shift’s about over.  He probably skipped out early.”

Haxus flipped through the cameras one last time before settling back into his chair.  Long nails drummed on the control panel as he watched the leveler’s arms clutch the trunk of a grotesquely thick and malformed tree.  The cutting blade whizzed closer until the sharp teeth bit into the wood.  As the blade struggled to slice through the tree, the entire leveler shook with its exertion.

Haxus jerked a thumb at the tree.  “You think the leveler can handle this monster?”

“Hasn’t failed to yet,” Throk droned.  Not bothered by the vibration of the leveler’s cab, he filled in an answer to his puzzle.

As the spinning blade cut through the trunk, thick black oil seeped from the bark.  It oozed along the blade.  The globs gathered and unified as air bubbled beneath its surface.  With a popping squelch, the hazy smoke broke through the oil as a belch.  The glob smacked its lips as it rose higher like a snake.  Slithering up the metal, it left a trail of slime in its wake as it crawled further into the leveler.

Hissing cackles bounced off the machinery as the glob wriggled along pipes and gears.  Its lips latched onto fittings and valves.  As it sucked in more oil and grease, its body convulsed in its ecstasy.  The glob clambered higher along the length of a pipe, oil slick and drippings splattering to the gears below.  At the top, the steam vent lifted, and the gelatinous glob squirmed its way inside the pipe.

 

Keith wrung his hands in front of him as he slowly floated backwards.  “I have so many questions,” he said with a bubbly pitch to his voice.  “Like why’d humans return to the forest?  And where’d they go?  Why can’t you fly?  Is it because of your arm?”

“Okay, first of all,” Shiro cut into Keith’s ramblings.  With a grunt, he jumped from a questionably weak twig and landed on a leaf.  As he straightened, he wiped the sweat from his brow with his tank top.  “It’s rude to assume I can’t do shit because of my arm.”

“Oh, sorry.”  Keith’s lips turned down as he fluttered after Shiro.  “So can you fly?  Coran says you can’t.”

“…no, I can’t,” Shiro muttered.  “But it’s not because of my arm.  Humans can’t fly.”  His gaze followed the beat of Keith’s wings, and for a moment, he lost himself in the illusion of crackling embers and sparks.  With a shake of his head, he stepped closer to the fairy.  He raised his arm and quickly tapped at Keith’s wing.  The membrane feathered his finger, and the heat Shiro expected was nothing like fire.  It was comforting and soothing with a baby-smooth softness.

With a tilt of his head, Keith stared at Shiro.  When those eyes brimming with curiosity met Shiro’s, Shiro retracted his touch.  “We’re not fairies, so we don’t have wings,” Shiro quickly said as he ducked his head and skidded down the middle vein of the leaf.

“I’m not a fairy.”  Keith flew after Shiro.  He hovered at Shiro’s side as Shiro leapt from leaf to leaf.  “I’m a forest spirit.”

“Uh-huh.  Doesn’t seem to be much of a difference.”

Keith darted forward and zigged in front of Shiro.  The human stumbled in his haste to stop, but Keith merely puffed out his chest.  “Forest spirits protect the balance of the forest.  It’s a very important job.”

Shiro nodded.  “I see.  Sorry ‘bout that.”

The pensive line of Keith’s lips broke as the corners curved up.  “It’s okay.”  His stance deflated as he lazily drifted backwards.  But with a few blinks of his eyes, he surged forward into the human’s space again.  “Wait, that monster!  What was that monster?”

“Monster?”  Shiro arched a thick eyebrow.  He stepped around Keith to slide down a vine of ivy.

Keith dove after Shiro.  “The monster that tried to eat you!  It was eating the trees!”

Shiro pursed his lips in thought before saying, “That wasn’t a monster.  It’s a machine.”

“A machine?”

“Yeah.”  Shiro paused as he judged the distance between an ivy leaf and the branch of a neighboring tree.  With a shrug of his shoulders, he launched himself at the branch.  His sneakers landed roughly on the bark, and he stumbled forward a couple steps before righting himself.  “It’s a… a thing for cutting down trees,” he said, a little breathless.

Keith gasped.  “That’s horrible!”

Shiro continued walking down the length of the branch.  “Sure, if you live in a tree.”

“I do live in a tree!”

Shiro tripped over his own feet.  For a short moment, he stood hunched over before slowly straightening and gazing back at Keith.  “Oh, yeah, that kinda sucks then.”

Keith’s brow drew together as he quietly asked, “You… you don’t have anything to do with that monster machine, do you?”

“I, uh…”  Shiro coughed before clearing his throat.  He hopped through a fork in the tree before following another branch lower.  “Of course not,” he said.  “How could I have anything to do with something so terrible?”

Keith flittered around the tree and cut off Shiro’s path once more.  “Could it come to Marmora?”

Faced with such genuine and innocent concern, Shiro averted his gaze from Keith’s shimmering eyes.  “No.  Probably not.”  He jumped off the branch and landed with a bounce on the head of a mushroom.

“But what if–”

“It won’t,” Shiro quickly cut in.  “It’s, uh, trapped.”

“Trapped?”  Keith’s head tilted to the side as he drifted closer.  He thought back to the destruction he saw and looked down upon the colored stains on his hands.  “By the marks?” he asked as he held out his palms.

“Yeah,” Shiro’s voice pitched.

“Like magic?”

Shiro hummed his affirmative.  He scooted off the mushroom and hopped down to the moss-covered bark.  It squished under his feet with each step.

A trail of glittering fire encircled Shiro as Keith flew in a flurry around him.  “Teach me some of your magic!”  Keith vibrated in his elation as he shakily hovered at Shiro’s side.

“Uh, okay…” Shiro trailed off as he wracked his brain.  His hand patted at each of his jean pockets before he felt something that might work.  “Come here,” he said.  Grabbing Keith’s wrist, Shiro pulled the forest spirit along with him under the brim of a stout mushroom.

Shiro dug in his front pant pocket and pulled out a metal lighter.  He flipped back the cap before flicking the spark wheel a few times.  A pair of sparks ignited before a flame rose from the lighter.

Keith jerked backwards at the rippling glow.  Eyes bulging wide, he sputtered incoherent syllables as his hand darted to smother the flame.  “Ah,” he hissed as the heat burned his palm.

“Don’t touch.”  With a flick of his wrist, Shiro capped the light and snuffed out the flame.  He swiftly pocketed it before reaching for Keith’s hand.  “Let me see.”

A rough hand – calloused from hard labor – gently turned Keith’s over.  So warm, the fingers cupped the back of Keith’s hand, softly squeezing as Shiro lifted Keith’s palm higher.  Shiro’s chin tipped low in his inspection, and Keith stared at the blinks of long lashes.

“You’re f–” Shiro started, but as his eyes lifted – his gaze traveling up the veins of Keith’s forearm and across the paint-smeared expanse of pectorals – Shiro’s mouth grew dry.  He swallowed, tongue peeking between his lips to wet them.  “…fine.  You’re fine.”

Keith’s fingers curled as he hesitantly took back his hand.  He held the fist to his chest as he said, “You summoned fire.”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“In a forest.”  Keith sternly stared.  At Shiro’s blank response, Keith huffed a breath.  “That’s dangerous!”  He poked a finger at Shiro’s chest, and Shiro’s eyes downturned to the pointed nail.  “Don’t do that.  It could destroy homes, kill birds and snakes and flowers and–”

“Okay, I got it.”  Shiro’s hand rose in a placating gesture.

“Good,” Keith said with a nod of his head.  “Now come on.  We have to show it to Kolivan.”

Raising his hand to his lips, Shiro stifled a snort.  His gaze trailed after the sparkling glow of Keith’s wings, and if anything was going to set the forest ablaze, Shiro’d bet it’d be the fire of that fairy’s blood.

 

“Keith!”  Allura cupped a hand at the corner of her lips as she called for Keith again.  She hovered in place, and a light of glittering pink settled around her.  The hazy air had moisture welling in the corners of her eyes that she wiped away with a sweep of her wrist.

“Keith!” she called out again, but still she received no answer.  The soft magenta petals of her dress ruffled and swayed with her descent to the bough of a tree.  She gazed out through the murky air, but drooping limbs and sickly foliage were all her eyes caught sight of.  The brilliant orange embers she searched for were absent among the dulled life of this forest.

“Allura!  I found something!”

Allura sprang off the branch at Pidge’s squeaky call.  “Keith?” she asked as she turned toward the oncoming beetle rider.  But the pitch of hope in her voice fell away with a groan when she didn’t see the fire of Keith’s wings.  Instead, Pidge waved a… thing at her.  A glinting, stone-like twig?

“Where on earth did you find that?  And what is it?”  Allura raised a thin eyebrow as she pointed to the thing.

Pidge practically bounced atop her beetle, buzzing with so much excitement her walnut helmet nearly slipped off her noggin.  “I don’t know, but it was just lying on the ground waiting to be picked up.”

“So, you picked it up?”

“Yep!”  Pidge used the pincer-like end to push up her helmet before waving it in the air.

“What about Keith?” Allura prompted.

“Oh, nope.  Didn’t see him,” Pidge said.

A whooping shout hung in the air as Lance and Hunk barreled into the conversation.  Lance’s beetle came to a screeching halt, but Hunk’s crashed into the backside of Lance’s.  Nearly being unseated from his mount, Lance fluttered his wings to save him the indignity of somersaulting over the beetle’s head.

Boisterous and mirthful, Hunk laughed.  He wiped the beads of gaiety from his eyes as he said, “Keith’s probably back home having supper.”

“Yeah, or he became someone else’s supper,” Lance chuckled.

“He’s fine,” Allura sharply stated.  “Keep looking.”

“Okay, okay, we’re looking.”  Lance buzzed forward, his beetle swooping low.

Hunk surged after him.  They flew along a murky stream of water and mud for a short length before Hunk collided with Lance’s stopped beetle again.

“It’s not Keith, but I found something!” Lance called.  He waved Allura and Pidge over as they flew lower to investigate.

Allura flitted past them and hovered above the muddy water.  Her head tipped to the side as her gaze narrowed at the thick block stuck against a protruding tree root.

Pidge whizzed past, her speed ruffling the rivulets of Allura’s hair.  “I call it!” the little beetle rider yelled.  “Mine!”

 

“Wow,” Shiro said, all breathy and awestruck.  “This is amazing.”

With dusk fast approaching, shadows of night closed around the forest.  They hugged the trees and crawled up the trunks as the sun set lower on the horizon.  But with the coming of darkness, the jungle lit up in a glow unknown to the sun.  Only when the moon awoke did nature gleam so brilliantly.

Bugs lit up like stars in the sky.  Their lights flickered and swayed with the buzz of their wings, and Shiro watched the display as they swarmed above a babbling creek.  The stars reflected a mirrored image in the glistening water.  If Shiro dove down, he believed the galaxy of space would be waiting for him at the pebbles of the creek bed.

“What’s it like where you live?”

Keith’s question pulled Shiro out of his trance.  He tipped his head back to gaze further up the tree.  Plump droplets rolled down the bark and dripped from the edge of the mushrooms.  One splattered beside him, dampening a few spots on Shiro’s jeans, but Shiro’s eyes were locked with Keith’s.  A blue like a stormy sky, Keith’s eyes were bright and crinkled at their corners, his bangs falling low as he peered over the mushroom.

“Nothing like this.  I live in a city.”  Shiro leapt for the next mushroom.  Its head glowed a pale green beneath his feet and never before had he thought fungus looked so beautiful.

“A what?”

“A city,” Shiro huffed as he jumped for the mushroom Keith sat on.  He clawed for purchase and hefted his weight up with an awkward wiggle of his upper body.  After heaving a sigh, he crawled to Keith’s side and settled down with his back against the tree bark.  “Lots of buildings, traffic-clogged streets, so many lights.  Most humans live in cities.”

“And trees?”

Shiro shook his head.  “You’re not gonna find many of those in the city.”

Keith’s head tilted as he stared blankly at Shiro.  “But trees give life.  They make the clouds, the rain, the air.”

Shiro shrugged.  “We have air.”

From above in the treetops, a quiet mutter reached Shiro’s ears.  “Sure, if you don’t mind choking on noxious gas.”

That damn bat, Shiro smirked to himself.  He knew he’d heard the flapping of wings and the occasional offhand utterance.

“Don’t you miss talking to the forest?”

Shiro lolled his head back against the tree.  His gaze tipped to the side.  “Can’t say I ever have.”

“I do all the time,” Keith said, and Shiro saw the softness of Keith’s eyes as Keith looked out upon the forest in the glow of dusk.

“Yeah?” Shiro quietly breathed.  “What’d it say?”

“Just listen.”  Keith’s eyes fell shut as his chest rose and fell with a steady breath.

Shiro followed suit.  His head straightened as his eyes closed.  For a moment, all he heard was his own heartbeat echoing in his ears, but slowly, the world around him began to sing.  Keith’s calm, steady breaths joined Shiro’s, and together they created a soft melody.  The dripping of water upon leaves and the rustling of branches above added to their song.  A small marsupial jumped through the air, its claws latching onto bark as it skittered up a tree.  Birds preened their feathers.  The buzz of insect wings became a constant drone.  Some nocturnal critter far below crunched on fruit seeds, the smacking and cracking echoing quietly in the night.

‘ _I am alive_ ’ is what Shiro heard the forest say.

Shiro’s lashes fluttered open.  With each blink, the flash of lightning bugs morphed to a new picture in the dark.  “So, what about you, Keith?  What do you do?”

Keith blinked his eyes open.  For a moment, he said nothing, simply sitting with pursed lips as he pondered his answer.  “I… help things grow,” he said, voice a little uncertain.

“Oh, so like flowers and stuff?”

Keith nodded, “Yeah.”

“That’s awesome.”  Shiro scooted forward before lowering himself to lie on his back.  He rested his hand behind his head, bent at the elbow as the palm cushioned his neck.

Keith worried his bottom lip between his teeth.  His hands wrung in his lap as he squirmed in place.  Eventually, he quietly said, “Can I ask you something?  I don’t want to be rude again.”

“About my arm?”  Shiro’s gaze flicked to Keith.  At the slow nod of Keith’s head, Shiro said, “Sure.”

“Humans normally have two, right?”  When Shiro hummed an affirmative, Keith went on.  “What happened to your other one?”

“I lost it in a mechanical accident.”

“Mechanical?  Like the machine?”  Keith’s eyes bulged, and he surged forward onto his palms.  “Did it try to eat you before?”

“No,” Shiro chuckled.  “There are lots of different machines, not all of them are bad.  I… worked on the not-so bad ones, making sure everything was running smoothly.”

“Oh.”  Keith’s eyes trailed over the deep scar cutting through Shiro’s collarbone.  He reached to touch the taut, discolored skin, but his touch feathered above it.  “This too?”

“Comes with the job,” Shiro nonchalantly said, because at this point, he’d long since accepted the scars marring his body.  Accidents were bound to happen when working on machinery with spinning blades and biting teeth.  He shouldn’t have even been out marking trees earlier in the day.  He wasn’t hired as a painter but as a mechanic.  But when the man who signs Shiro’s paychecks said jump, he jumped.

Keith’s fingers trembled as his gaze trailed higher to meet Shiro’s.  There was a flicker to Keith’s eyes that had Shiro nodding in permission.

The softness of Keith’s fingers pressed gently against the skin.  His touch dipped closer to Shiro’s heart as he followed the path of the slash.  Beneath his palm, Keith felt the beat of Shiro’s heart quicken.

“Does it hurt?” Keith asked, his eyes rising to Shiro’s face.

Shiro sucked in a stuttered breath through his nose.  “Not at all,” he said.  All he felt was warmth – the heat of Keith’s touch and the fervor of the flush to his own skin.

 

A chiseled pounding echoed vaguely within Keith’s ears.  At the outskirts of his consciousness, its sound slowly grew louder until one final chop spurred Keith’s eyes open.  He pushed himself up on his elbows as his torso twisted in search of the sound.  When another chop ripped through the air, he scrambled to the edge of the mushroom shelf and peered over it.

“Mornin’!”  Shiro waved from down below.  A ray of the sun glinted off the metal blade in his hand as he drew it back.  With a heavy thud, he sunk the knife into the bark of the tree.

“No!” Keith gasped.  His wings quivered as the balls of his feet pushed off the mushroom.  He slid over the edge head first and free fell until his wings flapped to catch the air.  With a swooping arch, he righted himself between Shiro and the tree.

The swing of Shiro’s arm halted a hairsbreadth from Keith’s bare shoulder.  “Whoa,” Shiro breathed out with a rush of air.  “What are–”

But Keith beat Shiro to the question.  With a sharpness to his voice, he demanded, “What are you doing?”

Shiro pointed the knife past Keith at the tree trunk.  “Carving your name.  See?  K-E-I–”

“Stop that!”  Keith grabbed the knife.  His fingers curled dangerously around the blade, but Shiro didn’t fight him for it.  Keith took it and closed it against his thigh like he’d seen Shiro do the day before.

“What’s the big deal?”

Keith’s lips fell.  “Can’t you feel its pain?”

“The tree’s… pain?”

“Yeah, here.”  Keith grabbed Shiro’s wrist and yanked him closer.  He pushed Shiro’s hand flat against the cuts in the bark and stared intently at Shiro’s face.

Shiro felt the roughness of the bark, the slivers of fresh cut wood.  But more than anything, he felt the warmth of Keith’s hand pressed against his – fingers so thin and slender, yet holding immense strength.  It was amazing how one step closer pulled him into Keith’s space like a magnet.  From the tree, he felt nothing, but from Keith, Shiro’s skin shivered from the radiated heat – fiery, yet icy cold at the same time.

Keith’s hand fell away.  His head ducked – bangs falling over his eyes – as he brushed past Shiro.

“Keith,” Shiro gently called, but Keith flitted lower along the exposed roots.  Shiro’s eyes trailed back to his own feet and slowly rose up the tree trunk.  His fingers ran along the rigid letters carved into the bark.

With a sigh, his touch slipped away.  He followed after Keith’s glittering trail and found the forest spirit sulking inside the shell of a nut.  Back hunched and arms squeezed around his knees, Keith pointedly turned his head from Shiro.

“I did something I shouldn’t have.  I’m sorry,” Shiro said.  When Keith simply heaved an exaggerated sigh, Shiro tried again.  “So, uh, which way to Marmora?”

Keith pointed in front of them.

Shiro leaned to look around Keith’s shoulder.  The path dipped low, winding beneath tree roots until it met the softly babbling water of a stream.  Shiro’s lips upturned as he checked for cracks in the shell.

With his shoulder, Shiro pushed the shell down the path.  Keith jolted at the sudden motion, a silent gasp on his lips, as Shiro hopped in behind him.  The rush of air tousled Keith’s silky hair and blew back the tuft of Shiro’s bangs.  When the shell hit the water, a spray of droplets flew into the air.  The drops glimmered in their descent, sprinkling a shivering coldness over both of them.

Keith shook his head like a dog.  He twisted in the shell to sit facing Shiro, and the pout of his lips quivered until a breath of laughter passed through them.  So carefree and lively, Shiro couldn’t resist the rumble in his chest that wanted to join in the gaiety.

“Isn’t this great?” Shiro said, his voice breathy from the mirth warming his chest.  Keith hummed his agreement, and once more, Shiro heard the forest speaking.

A young deer drank at the stream’s bank, water dripping from its lips as it lifted its head.  Hopping along tree roots, a pair of frogs jumped over each other and landed in the mud with a wet squelch.  A water strider glided on the stream’s surface, and a small smelt fish stalked after the bug’s every jerk.

Shiro rose to his feet.  The shell wobbled a bit before Shiro found his balance.  But once he did, he was reaching out to every overhanging blade of grass and entwining twig.

Keith leaned back to gaze up at Shiro.  The human’s eyes were lit up like the dancing lightning bugs of last night.  Lips parted in awe, Shiro’s gaze flicked at every rustle or glint of light.  Watching him, Keith breathed a quiet inhale before his lips softly upturned.

“Wow,” Shiro said.  He reached out to a tree root to steer the shell through the maze of roots and rocks.  The short tunnel of wood and earth opened up to sunlight shining upon the brilliant colors of flowers and the crystal-clear waters.  “What is this place?”

“This is Marmora,” Keith answered.

“It’s beauti–”  The shell tipped forward over a waterfall.  Shiro stumbled backwards, and his calves hit the edge of the shell.  With a sharp gasp from his lips, Shiro tumbled over the edge.

His heart rushed to his feet as he fell.  But his descent was jerked short when a hand wrapped tightly around his ankle.

“Hey, Keith, what’s this?” Hunk asked as he dangled Shiro at the side of his beetle.

“Careful, Hunk.  He’s a human.”

“A human?”  Hunk lifted Shiro higher as he peered at him.  Shiro kicked and squirmed, but Hunk merely held him tighter.  “Never heard of it, but I bet Pidge’ll love a new pet.”

“Hey!” Keith protested as Hunk flew away with a struggling Shiro in tow.  Keith’s wings sparked in their flaps.  He darted after them as he yelled, “That’s my human!”

 

A noxious blob of sludge bubbled and boiled as it crawled out of the exhaust pipe.  A hideous cackle hung in the murky air.  The glob smacked its lips as it rose higher.  “What is this delightful thing?  And how did I get out of that tree?”

It slithered along the top of the leveler, seeping over the edges of the cab.  “Ah, yes, humans.  Lovely creatures they are.  So clever, so easily manipulated.”

The glob slurped its drippings back into its main body.  It wriggled along the leveler until it slipped between the bars of an air vent.  It splattered against the floor as its bulk dropped.  Slick and seepage followed behind it as it slithered up to the door of the cab.

With a wet squelch, it cleared its throat, but its voice was still thick and rough.  “New orders, boys.  We’re going to Marmora.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading~  
> You can find me @ichibri on tumblr & twitter


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